Ever a Surprise, Ever as Before: How Belle Moves Back in Beauty and the Beast

Books Matter

A literary heroine—one who was literate herself, no less—was a noteworthy concept during the Age of Enlightenment. In the fairy tale, Beauty is one of six children whose wealthy merchant father "being a man of sense ... spared no cost for their education". Her intellectual superiority is conveyed not only by emphasis on her erudite qualities, but by descriptions of her siblings' lack thereof: "[She] was also better than her sisters ... They went out every day to parties of pleasure, balls, plays, concerts, and so forth, and they laughed at their youngest sister, because she spent the greatest part of her time in reading good books." There is another reference to reading as one of Beauty's pastimes alongside playing the harpsichord and singing, and she later reads in the library at the Beast's palace. These three mentions are the whole of any indication that she is a bookworm, but it can easily be gathered from them that homegirl has a scholarly bent, which is a Good Thing.

Beaumont, a teacher and later a governess, wrote her story with a distinct message for the young girls who were the intended audience. The notion that to have sense is to value education, and to be educated is to be good, reflects the developing ideology of the time about meritocratic advancement. Described as outshining her sisters "in her person as well as her mind", Beauty's characterization as a reading woman is cast in a favourable light. As such, her intelligence, sound judgment, and overall goodness are inextricably linked.

On the other hand, the Disney version reiterates Belle's obsession with reading so emphatically that one could reasonably assume that she does nothing else with her time on Earth, yet the connotations are not necessarily positive. When Belle (here the only child of a kooky inventor) is introduced, she is on her way to the bookstore at daybreak, book in hand. Though she doesn't have any siblings in the film, it is clear from the first spectacular musical number, "Belle", that her bibliophilism garners her alienation from literally everyone instead:

Look there she goes, that girl is so peculiar
I wonder if she's feeling well
With a dreamy, far-off look
And her nose stuck in a book
What a puzzle to the rest of us is Belle!

(What a puzzle to me is how she doesn't so much as sniff at the basket of delicious fresh rolls proffered by the local boulanger, but I digress. Marie! The baguettes! Hurry up!)

Why is reading made to be so weird? Village beefcake and primary antagonist Gaston, a villain to replace the wicked sisters who have been written out, asserts that it's "not right" for women to read, lest they start "getting ideas". This is obviously supposed to show the audience how silly he is...but no one else in the town corrects him. Why does Disney depict that as the majority opinion? Reading was cool, even back in 1756!

Belle doesn't care. She reciprocates the aversion to her neighbours who call her "odd" and "strange", obviously preferring paperback company. When books later make an appearance in the story, they are in the form of a massive library used to woo her, not educate her.* As children's literature professor June Cummins asserts in her analysis of the film, "Belle's propensity for reading ultimately has little weight in her development as an intelligent woman ... Belle is only once shown reading, for [exactly fourteen seconds] after she is given the library. We do not know what she is reading or what she thinks about it". Unlike Beaumont, Disney so excessively stresses the fact that Belle is a reader, but simultaneously diminishes its worth: her interest in books is used primarily to marginalize her and secondarily to underscore romance.

*Not that I couldn't totally be wooed with a library.